Hypnosis in the News:

SAN DIEGO, CA - Only eight percent of people who make New
Year's Resolutions actually keep or achieve them, according to recent
studies.

One tool that can make it easier for people to keep and succeed with
their resolutions is Hypnosis. Many people are using it to eliminate
negative beliefs, create positive ones and increase motivation.

"Hypnosis is not like what you see in the movies and on TV," said Master
Hypnotist Diane Edwards, CMH, owner of Hypnosis Groups and CEO of The
San Diego Hypnosis Clinic. "It is not a form of mind control. It is a
natural state that we all experience several times a day."

The use of hypnosis is gaining traction from many members of the medical
community. Hypnosis is widely used in Europe for anesthesia. The
Stanford (University) Center for Integrative Medicine website states
that hypnosis can be used for: "pain and physical symptom control,
smoking control, procedural anxiety management, medical treatment side
effects such as nausea and vomiting, stress management, phobias and
stress-related neurological problems."

According to the Mayo Clinic website, "Hypnosis can be used to help you
gain control over undesired behaviors or to help you cope better with
anxiety or pain. It's important to know that although you're more open
to suggestion during hypnosis, you don't lose control over your
behavior."

In fact, people experiencing hypnosis are usually aware of everything
that is going on. Some examples of the spontaneous hypnotic state are
similar to playing or listening to music, reading an enjoyable book or
watching television.

It is wildly popular with the general public for successful weight loss, quitting smoking and stress reduction.

"The reason it's so tough for people to keep their resolutions is that
their subconscious programming sabotages them," Edwards said. "Hypnosis
can help you to change those negative beliefs to much more positive
ones, so that it becomes easier to achieve your goals, whatever they
might be."

Hypnosis in one form or another has been around for thousands of
years, but until recently, evidence to support its biological and
clinically powerful effects have been lacking. Today hypnosis is used by
clinicians around the world to help manage pain, childbirth, phobia and
anxiety – particularly in children.

What
is hypnosis?

Hypnosis is thought to be a state of conscious awareness which most people experience transiently many times each day.
Hypnotic experiences and responses tend to involve:

absorption or a state of focused concentration or attention;

dissociation, where the patient’s perception of the external environment diminishes; and

suggestibility (the ability of an individual to respond, in a non-volitional way, to a verbal or non-verbal communication).

People describe the hypnotic mindset in different ways such as,
“being beside oneself”, “out of body experiences”, “daydreaming”,
“tuning out” or a meditative state.

Until the 19th century, hypnosis was the only means of having surgery comfortably. James Braid),
a Scottish surgeon working in Bengal in the 1840s, operated on several
hundred patients using hypnosis and his success subsequently received
widespread acclaim.

Over the years, clinicians have reported dissociation from pain,
decreased bleeding and reduced infection, suggesting an evolutionary
basis for why we have the ability to enter a hypnotic “trance-like”
state when under extreme stress.

Following the establishment of pharmacological anaesthesia – with its
greater effectiveness and reliability – the practice of hypnosis
languished for decades, becoming little more than a parlour trick. It
was almost forgotten until relatively recently.

Unfortunately, the term “hypnosis” has many negative connotations and
its use by stage hypnotists as entertainment has probably contributed
to many doctors not taking the clinical use of hypnosis seriously.

How it works

Contrary to popular belief, hypnosis is not sleep; hypnotic responses
can be elicited in minutes or less; and a conscious belief that it will
be effective is not required to achieve a benefit. Patients
experiencing hypnosis can hear what’s happening around them and can halt
the process at any stage if they wish.

The success of hypnosis in a clinical setting requires trust between
doctor and patient to go along with the process. But a borderline, and
sometimes frank, hypnotic state frequently occurs spontaneously in
hospital patients where the overwhelming stress of the external
environment – or the thought of painful procedures, or feelings of being
a victim to illness – can facilitate an internal focus of attention.

This can make patients highly responsive to suggestions, positive or
negative. And it means that when a doctor says, before a potentially
painful procedure, “this is going to sting”, the communication can
function as a hypnotic suggestion and is likely to increase pain. In
contrast, the positive suggestion, “the local anaesthetic will numb the
area and allow us to perform the procedure more comfortably” is likely
to decrease pain of local anaesthetic injection.

What
does the research say?

Advances in brain function imaging using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) scanning techniques have allowed us to see that hypnosis modulates activity in the anterior cingulate cortex,
which links the limbic (emotions) and sensory cortical areas of the
brain during hypnotic pain relief. This appears to allow sensations that
would normally be experienced as painful to no longer have the
suffering or negative emotions that would normally be associated with
them.

A labour contraction, for example, can be felt as either the most
terrifying and painful of sensations or a wonderfully fulfilling
experience that tells the mother she is getting closer to her baby.
These very different perceptions may be experienced despite the
intensity of uterine contractions being identical.

Anaesthetists in Belgium have successfully used hypnosis to help
thousands of patients minimise their need for general anaesthesia during
thyroidectomy (surgical removal of they thyroid gland), mastectomy
(removal of the breast) and plastic surgery.

Meanwhile, US researchers are currently investigating the
effectiveness of hypnosis and suggestion in the management of chronic
and procedural pain including burns.

And our own institution is researching the effectiveness of hypnosis
in managing childbirth pain, along with investigators in Denmark, the
United Kingdom and the University of Tasmania.

How
is it used?

Hypnosis in the formal sense – where a patient receives an induction,
treatment, and an alerting procedure – is more commonly practiced by
clinical psychologists and not widely used in hospitals. Although a
number of hospitals around the world use hypnotic techniques, the main
clinical application is to use suggestions to supplement anaesthesia
drugs and techniques as part of a multimodal approach to patient care.

Hypnosis has been used at Adelaide’s Women’s and Children’s Hospital
for more than three decades, since Dr Graham Wicks, a medical
hypnotherapist at the hospital, pioneered its use. Over the years,
hypnosis has been used to treat thousands of children with problems as
diverse as bedwetting, pain, and helping children comfortably use
hypnotic anaesthesia with needles and renal dialysis.

Today, several paediatricians and anaesthetists at our institution
are trained in hypnosis and use it to supplement patient care where
indicated.

As anaesthetists, we use hypnotic techniques to help patients feel
more in control and to supplement and enhance their anaesthesia
experience. Common examples include assisting children and adults with
their induction of anaesthesia, burns dressings, treatment of needle
phobia, assistance with childbirth pain and preparation of patients for
surgery.

It’s very rare for procedures to be performed entirely using hypnosis.

The main value of hypnosis as a technique is to assist patients
having drips and needles inserted more comfortably and usefully
supplement a less than perfect local anaesthetic. The belief that the
patient can do more than he or she thinks (and more than the doctor
believes is possible) is likely to generate surprising therapeutic
responses.
https://theconversation.com/explainer-how-does-hypnosis-relieve-pain-7060

Actor Bill Murray used hypnosis to cure his allergy to cats so he could share scenes with a feline in his film "St. Vincent."

The
"Lost in Translation" star plays a curmudgeonly hermit who spends most
of his time with his pet cat Felix in the new movie, so Murray took an
unconventional measure to treat his allergy to film with the animal.

He told Ellen DeGeneres in an interview on her talk show on Wednesday,
"I read someplace that allergies are psychosomatic and you can actually
hypnotize yourself and overcome the allergy.

"So I used to do
that. I used to go to girls' houses and they had cats and all of a
sudden I'd be looking at them crying and they'd be like, 'What did I
say?' and I'd go, 'No, it's not you!' So I learned to hypnotize myself
and get over it.

"But then I decided I didn't really like cats
that much, so I stopped. I'm more of a dog guy. But for the movie I went
back to that and it worked."

It sounds like the work of sorcerers and scam artists, but hypnosis
can play a very real role in protecting and promoting health.

This isn't the “You are getting very sleepy..." hypnosis you're used to seeing in pop culture references, but a clinical procedure used in conjunction with other therapies and treatments,
according to the American Psychological Association. Hypnosis for
health benefits "should be conducted only by properly trained and
credentialed health care professionals (e.g. psychologists) who also
have been trained in the use of hypnosis and who are working within the
limits of their professional expertise,” according to the APA's website.

The "state of inner absorption,
concentration and focused attention” brought on by hypnosis may help us
use our minds more powerfully, according to the American Society of
Clinical Hypnosis (ASCH). And harnessing the powers of the mind has
inspired researchers and clinicians in various fields to explore the use
of hypnosis in a number of health outcomes.

Medical hypnosis, sometimes called hypnotherapy,
uses verbal repetition and/or mental imagery (facilitated by a
hypnotherapist or one's self) to induce a "trance-like state" of
increased focus. It's typically described as feeling calm and relaxing
and usually opens people up to the power of suggestion, according to the
Mayo Clinic.

Once disregarded as a parlor trick, hypnosis is
increasingly believed to improve many of those outcomes. The American
Medical Association approved hypnosis as a therapy in 1958 (although it later rescinded its position,
according to the ASCH), and the APA followed suit three years later,
according to Harvard Medical School. That's not to say it's a panacea:
In fact, more research is needed to prove lasting benefits of hypnosis
for certain facets of health, such as weight loss or smoking cessation.
But more promising results exist in other areas of study. Here are a few
of the science-backed benefits of hypnosis to consider.

Hypnosis can help improve deep sleep.
In previous studies of the effects of hypnosis on sleep, study
participants were simply asked to report back on how well (or poorly!)
they felt they slept after hypnosis. But in a recent study, Swiss
researchers were able to measure its effects by monitoring brain activity
in a group of healthy, young women as they took a 90-minute nap after
listening to a hypnotic suggestion tape. The women who were deemed the
most susceptible to hypnosis spent 80 percent more time in slow-wave
sleep (the deep, restorative phase of our shut-eye) after listening to the hypnosis tape than they did after listening to a neutral spoken text. "[T]he results may be of major importance for patients with sleep problems
and for older adults," lead researcher Maren Cordi of the University of
Zurich said in a statement. "In contrast to many sleep-inducing drugs,
hypnosis has no adverse side effects."

It can ease pain.
Hypnosis is perhaps most well-researched in the context of managing pain.
Two meta-analyses of existing pain and hypnosis research, published in
2000 and 2009, deemed hypnosis effective at lowering pain associated
with a number of conditions, including fibromyalgia, arthritis and cancer, but noted that few psychologists were using it, and those who were had little standardization in administering hypnotherapy.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story neglected to state that the AMA has since changed its position on hypnosis.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/02/hypnosis-health-benefits_n_5523210.html The Huffington Post
| By
Sarah Klein

PARIS – A professional singer said she
sang through a throat surgery carried out under hypnosis in France to
ensure that doctors did not harm her vocal cords.

Alama Kante, 31, who is from Guinea and specializes in traditional
African songs, revealed the operation more than two months after it took
place in April, saying earlier this week she was now fully healed.

“I remember (during surgery) this voice singing all the time, my
voice going around in my head because I said to myself it is out of the
question that I lose my voice,” said Kante, who lives in France and is
the niece of Guinean singer Mory Kante.

The procedure to remove her thyroid gland, whose cells had become
enlarged and was thus a cancer risk, was unorthodox. The operation is
usually conducted under anesthetic, with a tube inserted down the
throat.

Recognizing that the tumor extraction might truncate Kante’s singing
range and that the tube might damage vocal cords and important nerves,
Dr. Gilles Dhonneur opted for medical hypnosis to allow the patient to
remain awake and able to respond during the procedure.

Dhonneur, head of anesthesiology at the Henri-Mondor de Cretail
Hospital outside Paris, has been perfecting the technique of medical
hypnosis for two years. “The pain of such an operation is unbearable if
you’re conscious,” Dhonneur told Le Parisian daily. “Only medical
hypnosis would allow someone to tolerate such an ordeal.”

Kante remembers the hypnotist telling her that the pain she felt was
that of childbirth, and remembers the song lyrics she sang to help
control it: “Fight, never give up . . .”

“There was a moment where I really felt pain . . . and it passed, the
pain passed and afterwards it was normal, as if I were in a dream,”
said Kante.

Hypnosis For Children
Children are often better candidates for hypnosis than adults, says one
clinical psychologist, and the process can help resolve such problems as
pain, anxiety, bed wetting, and asthma.

Robert Shacter of New York's Mount Sinai School of Medicine talked about children and hypnosis on The Saturday Early Show.
He says children tend to respond to hypnotic suggestion better than
adults because they are more in touch with their imaginations.

Children
can be hypnotized as early as age 3, he says, adding, "But in my
personal experience, I have found that children ages 5 or older respond
best to the treatment."

Here is part of a pre-interview with Robert Shacter.

The
easiest way to hypnotize a child is to have them focus on a point, he
explains. They will do that until their eyes begin to feel heavy, and
they become sleepy. You now have them in a trance-like state. Once they
are in this state, you begin to tell the child stories that can
alleviate whatever problems they may have.

What role, if any, does the parent play during a hypnosis session?
As
in any therapy, it is important for parents to know what is going on.
But in the actual session the parent is either not there or in the
backround. So they really don't play any part in the actual therapy.

How many times does a typical child visit a hypnotist?
Most
children attend 4 to 8 sessions with a qualified hypnotist. During that
time, the hypnotist can teach a child how to hypnotize himself.

How do I know if my child if a candidate for hypnosis?
Most children are good candidates. It just depends on whether the problems they are having can be helped by hypnosis.

Here are some of the problems that might be helped by hypnosis:

Pain.
Hypnosis is very effective at alleviating the pain of children
undergoing cancer treatments. What we do is help the child go somewhere
else, away from the pain. By accessing the unconscious, the child
creates images that forces them to focus on something other than the
pain they are feeling.
For example, if you squeezed your hand
very tightly to the point that it hurt and then someone asked you to
focus on something else, you would not be as aware of the pain in your
hand.

Anxiety. A child who is anxious often
breathes more quickly and has a higher heart rate. With hypnosis, we can
teach them to breathe more slowly, lower their heart rate and take them
away from whatever is making them anxious.

Bed Wetting.
Many doctors prescribe medicine for children who have a bed-wetting
problem. But now more physicians are turning to hypnosis, which has very
positive results. Part of the reason that it works so well is that kids
play an active role in their treatment rather than just taking a pill.

Asthma. When children with asthma feel their
throats constricting, they begin to feel anxious and breathe more
heavily. With hypnosis, you teach the child to calm down and bring them
to another place.

How effective is hypnosis in children?
In
the right child, hypnotism can be very successful. Remember: There are
some children who have a harder time letting go. But for those who can,
the results can be very positive. Another plus of hypnosis is that
unlike drugs, the risk of harm is low.

Why aren't more doctors using hypnotism?
It's
just not taught that much in schools, and some people still don't want
to recognize it as a viable alternative. However, it is becoming more
popular, and many insurers will cover it.

Cancer Patients Turn To Hypnosis To Ease Side Effects Of Radiation

NEW YORK(CBSNewYork) — A technique that magicians and entertainers have used for years may be useful as a form of cancer therapy.

It doesn’t treat the cancer itself, but hypnosis has been shown to
ease the side effects of cancer therapy, CBS 2′s Dr. Max Gomez
explained.

Claire Zion was given radiation treatments after a double mastectomy
in 2010. She said that hypnosis kept her energized during her cancer
treatments.

“I rode my bike to radiation every day,” she said.

Radiation tends to leave patients seriously fatigued, but Zion, 54,
took part in a study at Mt. Sinai Hospital where patients underwent
cognitive behavioral therapy and hypnosis during treatment.

Patients in the study reported have more energy and less anxiety.

“Feeling anxious and worried can lead to fatigue and that’s one of
the steps we’re working with patients to be more in control of,” Guy
Montgomery, Mt Sinai Hospital explained.

Researchers found that even after 6 months, patients who underwent the hypnosis and therapy still felt less fatigued.

“They learned the skills that they needed to help themselves feel
better over time and hopefully improve their quality of life,”
Montgomery explained.

Other studies have found that hypnosis can also ease the pain of cancer treatments.

Zion is now cancer free but has started hypnosis again.

“It teaches you to find a place where you can quiet that noise and comfort yourself,” she said.

The study did not look at immune function but experts said that
stress can reduce immunity, so if hypnosis calms a patient it may be
good for their immune system. As a side benefit to hypnosis calm
patients also sleep better.